The Distance
(#1–10 of 2)

Nearly three decades into her record-shattering career, Mariah Carey knows a thing or two about endurance. It’s almost a full minute into “The Distance,” the latest track from her 15th album, Caution, before the elastic midtempo beat drops, by which point Mariah—ever the over-achiever—has already blown through a cheerleader chant, the first verse, and a pre-chorus.

The entirety of “The Distance” hinges on a question of trust between Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Aaron (Ross Marquand), a newcomer who finds Rick’s group held up in a barn and offers sanctuary at a community called Alexandria. The looming memories of the Governor and Terminus are written all over Rick’s face, and the psychological damage done by those experiences on our fearful leader can be shown in his general hostility toward Aaron. The subject, as is often the case with The Walking Dead, boils down to the inherent dangers in believing in safe havens, and that’s primarily why “The Distance” feels like one of the more repetitive and dramatically light episodes of this season.